De-escalating the Abortion Wars

Abortion is extremely contentious, and for more than 45 years now, there has been considerable “warfare” between “pro-choice” and “pro-life” people. Is there any way to de-escalate such negative polarization?  

The Abortion Wars

James Davison Hunter is a “Distinguished Professor” at the University of Virginia and author of the seminal book Culture Wars (1991).

“The Issue of Abortion” is a major subsection of the ninth chapter of my book Fed up with Fundamentalism, and as I mention there, Hunter (b. 1955) has suggested that abortion could well be the catalyst for America’s next civil war.

That kind of talk didn’t end in the 1990s, though. In May of last year, the conservative Christian Post featured an online article titled “The coming civil war over abortion.” That same month, The Guardian posted “Christian rightwingers warn abortion fight could spark US civil war.”

Among Christians, abortion was primarily only a Catholic issue until Francis Schaeffer convinced Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell in 1979 to use it to gain political power—and the abortion wars have now raged for four decades among Christians as well as in society at large.

In this election year, abortion is at the heart of the political “wars” between the Republicans and Democrats. Vice President Pence said in his acceptance speech last week,

President Trump has stood without apology for the sanctity of human life every day of this administration. Joe Biden, he supports taxpayer funding of abortion, right up to the moment of birth.

(It has often been said that truth is the first casualty in war, and Pence’s last statement is misleading and untrue.)

De-escalation Efforts

In spite of the rhetoric being used by the Trump administration and its staunch conservative evangelical followers, there are both Catholics and evangelical Christians who are seeking to de-escalate the abortion wars by broadening their ethical concerns.

In 1972 a group of Catholic sisters organized for social justice as the Network. They became widely known because of their first Nuns on the Bus tour in 2012. (In 2014 I wrote about them and their leader, Sister Simone Campbell, here.)

Long known as just NETWORK, their website is NetworkLobby.org and they are promoting PopeFrancisVoters.org in their campaign against the current President. Even though they are Catholics, they say little about abortion and much about a broad gamut of social justice issues.

Ron Sider, the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action, is an example of a Protestant evangelical who has through the years been strongly against abortion. But long ago he began to emphasize the importance of being “completely pro-life,” publishing a book by that name in 1987.

In de-escalating the abortion wars, Sider was the editor of a book published earlier this year under the title The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump: 30 Evangelical Christians on Justice, Truth, and Moral Integrity.

A Spark of Light

Jodi Picoult is a superlative novelist, and I was greatly impressed with her 2018 novel A Spark of Light. In fact, I decided to write this blog article mainly because of reading it.

The novel is about just one day—a very fateful day when there was a shooting in an abortion clinic.

Picoult skillfully narrates the deep thoughts and convictions of all the people involved in that tragic day: the shooter, the policeman seeking to get the shooter’s hostages released, the protesters outside the clinic, the women inside the clinic, and the doctors and nurses providing the abortion services. 

Dr. Willie Parker (b. 1962)

The doctor performing the abortions that day is based on a real-life abortion doctor, Willie Parker, who tells his story in Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice (2017).  

Even though it will be quite perplexing to some, Parker believes that performing abortions and “speaking out on behalf of the women who want abortions” is his Christian calling and his “life’s work” (p. 16).

For all of you who wonder how a Christian can justify abortion, I highly recommend reading Picoult’s novel and/or Parker’s book. Doing so thoughtfully, I believe, would go far toward de-escalating the abortion wars.

Ten Most Admired Contemporary Christians

Who are the ten living, and still active, Christian speakers/writers that you admire/respect the most? Recently I began to think about that question, and now I am sharing my (tentative) list with you.

Please note that these are “professional” Christians who are currently active (or not completely retired). They are people who primarily speak to or write for a “popular” audience rather than to academia. Thus, none are full-time religion/theology professors.

(My list of the contemporary theologians/professors that I admire most would be quite different.)

One more brief caveat: my list is skewed a bit (but not much) by my desire to include some diversity. I didn’t want the list to be completely of white, male, Protestants like me.

So here is my list, presented in alphabetical order (by last name): 

WILLIAM BARBER (b. 1963)

Rev. Barber is perhaps the person on this list I have known about for the shortest time. I probably heard about him for the first time when working on my 9/30/13 blog article about the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina. I have since seen him on several YouTube videos and then was impressed anew when I heard him deliver a powerful sermon in Kansas City last year. Here is the link to the blog article I wrote about him last September.

AMY BUTLER (b. c. 1970)

Rev. Butler has been pastor of the highly influential Riverside Church in New York City since 2014. I first met her when I visited a Sunday morning worship service at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., in 2012 when she was pastor there, and I regularly see/read her perceptive op-ed articles. 

SIMONE CAMPBELL (b. 1945)

Widely known as “the nun on the bus,” Sister Simone is the executive director of NETWORK, a nonprofit Catholic social justice lobby. She was the subject of my 9/20/14 blog article (see here). 

TONY CAMPOLO (b. 1935)

Stimulating writer and extraordinarily good speaker, in my 2/18/15 blog article I called Campolo “one of my favorite people.” He is one I would have long had on a list such as this. 

SHANE CLAIBORNE (b. 1975)

The youngest person on this list, Claiborne is the author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (2006, 2016). He is a young man worth reading and listening to. 

POPE FRANCIS (b. 1936)

Perhaps this selection speaks for itself. 

JAMES FORBES (b. 1935)

A marvelous preacher and gentleman, I have long admired Rev. Forbes, who was pastor of Riverside Church in New York from 1989 to 2007. 

BRIAN McLAREN (b. 1956)

I have been an admirer of McLaren since I read his novel A New Kind of Christian (2001). Then in 2008 I marked that the best theology book I had read that year was his Everything Must Change (2007). As a primary leader of the emergent church movement, he is a very significant contemporary Christian leader. 

JIM WALLIS (b. 1948)

Founder, president, and CEO of Sojourners and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, I have been an admirer of Wallis since the early 1970s—and have written about him and his early activities in this article on another blogsite. 

PHILIP YANCEY (b. 1949)

I have personally met or seen/heard all of the above persons—except for Pope Francis, for obvious reasons. But I have never met Yancey; however, I have read, and been impressed by, several of his books. I especially recommend What’s So Amazing about Grace? (1997) and Soul Survivor (2001).

Since these are contemporary Christians that I most admire, I have also learned from them--and my faith has grown, I believe, because of them. 

Who's on your list?

Do You Have to Pay Income Tax?

Well, it is that time of the year again—income tax time in the U.S. Actually, tax day is not today, as I thought when I planned this article, but on April 18 this year.

Of course, most of you who were expecting to get a tax refund probably filed your return weeks ago. But perhaps others of you who, like me, have to pay more when filing have waited until near the deadline.

To ask some people, “Do you have to pay income tax?” might be a way of subtly inquiring about their income. Those below a certain level of income don’t have to pay any income tax—and last year it was reported that just over 45% of U.S. adults paid no federal income tax.

Back in 2012, that figure was given as 47%, and they were people that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan dubbed as “takers.” (To his credit, last month Ryan admitted that he was wrong in what he said back then.) It remains true, though, that some people don’t have to pay income tax because of their limited income.

There are some, however, who contend that U.S. citizens don’t have to pay income tax because the government doesn’t have the right to demand such taxes. Actually, I have been planning to write this article ever since I saw that Irwin Schiff died last October.

I had never heard of Schiff (b. 1928) before, but he was a prominent figure in the U.S. tax protester movement and died in federal prison while serving a sentence of at least 13 years for tax evasion.

Schiff was the author of several books, including Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes (3rd rev. ed., 1999). It is the only non-fiction book banned by the U.S. government—because it was judged to contain fraudulent information.

Whether by protest, by negligence, or by poor financial management, there seem to be many people who haven’t paid all their income tax and, consequently, who own the government a lot of money. There is now even a federal program, the “Fresh Start Initiative,” to assist taxpayers who owe back taxes.

In addition, I have been amazed at how many advertisements I have heard/seen recently by companies who are seeking clients whom they can help, for a sizeable fee no doubt, settle with the government for less than they owe in back taxes. So, evidently, some people don’t have to pay all their taxes because of getting behind in their payments.

In stark contrast to tax protesters such as Irvin Schiff are those who advocate taxpayer pride. Sister Simone Campbell is one such person. (Some of you will remember her as “the nun on the bus.”) She is the head of a group known as NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby.

I receive her/their emails regularly, and their April 1 email was titled, “Join Us in Showing #TaxpayerPride April 15! Take a Picture with What You are Proud to Pay For.” Here is the picture Sister Simone posted: 

Sister Simone says, “There are many great things that taxes pay for, and we at NETWORK are ready to show our #TaxpayerPride. We know that when we all come together and pay our fair share, our communities are healthier, happier, safer, and stronger.”

Surely it takes the sting out of paying our income tax when we realize that, among other things, those funds to go, at least in part, to make better communities for us all.

Taxation: Theft, or Support of the Public Welfare?

It has been ten days now since Tax Day 2015, but I am still thinking about taxation because of what I saw/heard in the media in the days following April 15.

While driving around town on the 17^th, I listened to some of the Chris Plante Show. Since February, that program has been broadcast from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays on one of the two Kansas City talk radio stations.

Plante’s home base is WMAL in Washington, D.C., and his programs are available on their website. WMAL touts their station as the place “where Washington comes to talk.”

I had heard bits and pieces of Plante’s program before, but I didn’t really catch his name until last week. And I was very negatively impressed with what I heard.

One repeated emphasis of Plante that day was on taxation being “theft.” That’s nothing new for talk radio, it seems, for I remember first hearing that opinion expressed by Mike Huckabee a couple of years ago.

Plante likened taxation to the way the Nazis stole the wealth of Austrians in the new movie “Woman in Gold.” And he decried the way the Democrats want to “steal” wealth of people when they die rather than allowing their descendants to inherit it.

The government is there “to steal everything,” Plante warned.

Just the day before, the U.S. House voted to repeal the estate tax. That has long been the goal of Republican legislators—in spite of the fact that currently the first $5,430,000 of any estate is exempt from taxes.

The anti-estate tax rhetoric speaks about descendants having to sell their inherited farms in order to pay the taxes. But in 2013 only 0.6% (1 out of every 167) of the estates of farmers owed any estate tax at all.

And overall, only 1 in every 553 inheritances owed any estate tax. It is true that the President wants to lower the estate tax exemption to a mere (!) $3,500,000 and to increase the taxation rate from 40% to 45%. But, still, that is a far cry from trying “to steal everything.”

On that same program, Plante also criticized the President for not doing enough to fight Islamic terrorists. But months ago it was estimated that the U.S. bombing strikes against ISIS had exceeded $1,000,000,000 and is currently costing at least $10,000,000 a day.

Where is that money coming from, if not from taxes? How can a reasonable person possibly vilify taxation as theft and then criticize the administration for insufficient military activity?

In great contrast, during the week of April 15, Sister Simone Campbell, the “nun on the bus” (about whom I wrote here), was promoting a Facebook/Twitter movement dubbed #TaxPayerPride.
 
According to a HuffPost article, her desire is to remind people of the good work their tax money can accomplish.

Sister Simone says too many politicians focus on cutting taxes "at the expense of the good of our nation." Instead, she wants to celebrate how taxes make America a "stronger, more humane country"—by helping to support health care, education, food and transportation.

As you might guess, I am in considerable agreement with Sister Simone and in complete disagreement with Chris Plante.

On April 13, June and I paid far more in federal and state income tax than our entire yearly income was back when we were first married. And though I don’t like my taxes being used for warfare  and support the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act, I am happy to pay taxes for support of the public welfare.

What about you?

Honoring Sister Simone

This year’s recipient of the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award will be Sister Simone Campbell, a Catholic nun and social justice activist best known as the leader of “Nuns on the Bus.”

Sister Simone (b. 1945) is the executive director of NETWORK, a nonprofit Catholic social justice lobby based in Washington, D.C. Tomorrow (Sept. 21) she will receive the prestigious award on the campus of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

NETWORK, social justice lobby that she heads, was founded in 1972. In 2004, Sister Simone became its Executive Director. She was an excellent choice, for she is a remarkable woman with great credentials.

She joined the order called Sisters of Social Service in 1964, taking her final vows in 1973. Four years later she earned a law degree from the University of California, Davis.

In the 1980s as she led the Community Law Center in Oakland, Calif., which she founded in 1978, she also began practicing Zen.

It is a bit hard to get one’s head around the idea of a Catholic nun who practices both law and Zen!

Sister Simone and her organization were relentless supporters of healthcare reform in 2009-10 despite the bishops’ warning that the bill would provide government funding for abortion.

She writes of how thrilled she was to be in the gallery when the House voted to adopt the Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially called Obamacare.

“That last one,” she writes in her book A Nun on the Bus (2014), “is a label I think the president will wear proudly, though his opponents used it as an epithet” (p. 93).

In April 2012, though, NETWORK was indirectly censured by the Vatican.

The reprimand was of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the umbrella organization under which NETWORK operates. But NETWORK seemed to be the LCWR-affiliate that caused the most concern for the Vatican.

By that time they were widely known for their Nuns on the Bus tour that occurred in June and the beginning of July in 2010. Their purpose was to appeal for economic justice and to oppose the “Romney-Ryan budget” that gutted funding for safety-net programs.

Because of Sister Simone’s support of Obamacare and her leading the 2012 bus tour, she was given six minutes to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Sept. 2012. You can see her deliver that speech here.

Last year, Rep. Nancy Pelosi wrote this about Sister Simone for Politico:

If there’s a single phrase to describe Sister Simone, it is “compassionate conviction.” With bravery, with courage, with optimism, she is focused on the common good. She is a champion for the cause of peace and justice. She has the will and the drive to do right.

Rep. Pelosi’s essay is part of a series in which dozens of women reveal what women they most admire. You can find the complete article here.

Last month June and I heard Sister Simone speak in Kansas City, and we were highly impressed with her. She has a most winsome stage presence and exhibits a good balance of self-confidence and humility.

We are also impressed that last year she led a second bus tour, appealing for immigration reform, and this month she and other Sisters started on a third bus tour, this time standing up against the Koch brothers and “big money” political donations. (Read about that here.)

In spite of all her political activities, Sister Simone remains a faithful Christian. Repeatedly, she writes, “Come, Holy Spirit,” and she refers to those words as her mantra (p. 91).

It is a joy to join with many others in honoring Sister Simone for what she has done and continues to do.